Do translators need portfolios?

Lots of translators (beginning and experienced) wonder if it’s a good idea to create a portfolio. Something with excerpts of your translations that you can show to potential clients as a marketing tool. My take: a portfolio probably isn’t worthwhile in the way that most translators envision it, but could be helpful in other ways. Let’s take a look:

Most translators think of a portfolio this way: go through your old translations, pull out some excerpts from the source and target text, and make it into a PDF or post it on your website. That has a few problems:

The work might be covered by non-disclosure agreements

The client might not understand one of the languages involved, so may not be able to assess your translation skill in the way you envision

Meanwhile, you’re thinking that the portfolio will help you leapfrog over requirements such as an agency’s tests, which it probably won’t

I do think that a portfolio can be useful to:

Show examples of your published work. For example, I have a web page highlighting my French to English translations of non-fiction books.

Give examples of “signed” translations that have been published with your name on them. For example, a few years ago I did some translations for a Swiss museum, and they put my name in the exhibition credits. I then sent that photo to a few other arts-sector clients, for credibility purposes

Show your writing style, and show examples of the *types* of things you translate

Attract clients who are very writing-style conscious, such as clients who need content marketing translations (blog posts, tip sheets, e-books, etc.) where there is a strong emphasis on catchy writing

Include reviews of your published translations, or testimonials from clients

Bottom line, I think that most agencies will still require you to take their tests, and most direct clients will want to see an example of your work on *their* materials. For most translators who want to work with direct clients, I think that doing a “teaser” translation of a high-profile item like the client’s home page or Twitter profile is more effective than a portfolio. If you’re interested in using bad translations as a marketing tool, check out this post, and make sure to read the comments for lots of great tips. But for most translators, I also think that a portfolio of excerpts from legal contracts, financial statements, or pharmaceutical documents is unlikely to be useful. Additionally, it may create an expectation that you’ll be able to avoid agencies’ application requirements by using it.

If you enjoyed this post, you might be interested in my Marketing to Direct Clients course, starting May 8, 2017. A past participant commented, “I now have the knowledge and confidence to market myself to direct clients. It was the best investment I made for my freelance business. I regret I didn’t take this course sooner!”

I quite agree that putting together a portfolio can be a waste of time. When I started freelancing I actually translated a couple of articles and sent the source and target together to potential clients. My efforts were blithely disregarded by everybody that I sent them to. What I have found to be much more useful is simply providing a description of some of the more challenging jobs I’ve worked on recently, discussing the subject area in terms general enough to avoid indicating who the original client was while specific enough to make clear what kind of expertise was required to do the translation. As a lot of my work requires NDAs, this keeps me safe as well.

Showing credibility can be in different formats, like testimonials and references. So, I think portfolio can be just another sign of credibility, maybe it is not a necessity, but just a brick in a wall. If you can do it, that is fine, if not it is Okay too. But as you said Corrine, most agencies will ask for a sample translation anyway as a procedure for the recruitment process.

Whenever a client of mine publishes my translations (e.g. sustainability reports, campaign teasers, etc.) I add the links to a list sorted by topics, so I have it ready to show it to new or potential clients who work within the same area or field. It’s been quite helpful and, whenever the client is a high-profile NGO, for example, that helps even more because it shows that big names in the industry trust you with their translation needs.

When I first started freelancing, I created a portfolio of translations that I tried to use as a tool to market myself, too. To this day, nearly four years later, I have only used those files a handful of times. Agency clients will have a ready-made test for you to take, and direct clients will, as you pointed out, be more interested in how you handle their content. I think the idea of teasers is a great one and one that will catch a potential client’s eye more than that blog post you translated four years ago on who knows what…

I tried this too many moons ago, but it didn’t work either. I was hoping it would produce good SEO results, but I only managed to attract clicks from people looking for information on medical conditions, not translation.

Thanks for bringing this one up, Corinne. I’m going to swim against the tide here. Portfolios work — provided you target them at the right people (I’ll come back to that shortly).

I agree with all your points about how portfolios can be useful. And there are some simple workarounds for the non-disclosure issue. Pick a non-sensitive text and ask your client if you can use it. I’ve had a couple of (direct) clients welcome the idea enthusiastically. Or perhaps take a royalty-free text in the public domain that’s relevant to your subject area(s) and translate it specifically for your portfolio.

On the targeting front, I agree that portfolios might not be useful for potential direct clients (who often can’t assess the quality of your output). And, as you say, most agencies will want you to jump through their hoops anyway.

But I think you’ve omitted a third “client” group — other translators (who might be looking for a revision/collaboration partner, may have too much work on their hands, or could have potentially useful contacts in an industry/field they can’t serve themselves).

I think that’s where portfolios — hard-copy, well-presented, placed in a prominent position for colleagues to peruse at their leisure, alongside a stack of business cards — come into their own. At the SFT’s monthly networking events in Paris (organised by Chris Durban, among others), there’s a “Vois-là mon travail” table where attendees can display their work for precisely this purpose.

I’m not suggesting you can run a thriving freelance practice on referrals alone, but I think portfolios (and “signed” translations in general) are a good way to connect with colleagues. After all, they’re probably better placed than anyone to assess the quality of your work.

Thanks, Martin! That’s a really great point that I missed in the article, thanks for bringing it up. I do think that some translators get *lots* of work from other translators, and having a portfolio or putting your work on display is a great way to facilitate that. To back up what you’re saying, when clients ask me for references, I always give colleagues rather than clients. As you said, they can assess the quality of my actual translations, which a lot of clients cannot.

I’m just in the process of updating my portfolio and putting it into a more formal structure, so I was interested to see your blog post on this, Corinne!

Like Martin, I think a portfolio can be a handy way to share your work with colleagues. It’s always interesting to see what types of texts other people work on, and if you’ve had a look at their work you can be much more confident in recommending them to potential clients.

The portfolio table at the SFT events is a great idea and would be quite easy to implement. I think I’ll suggest it for our local translation get-togethers!

To explore the global market the most important thing is to target the user in their target language. The point mentioned here about keeping the things simple is absolutely correct, as easier things are better to understand.
Thanks for sharing this content.

Freshly pressed: Finding and Marketing to Translation Agencies. Available in print, PDF, and Kindle formats

Search Thoughts on Translation

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're OK with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. To view this website's privacy policy, click About>Privacy Policy. AcceptRead More